5 Reasons Why The Success Of Thor: The Dark World Is Great For Disney And Great For You

Part of the appeal with Marvel and with comic books in general is their ability to create a very textured and complicated universe complete with crossovers, Easter eggs, teases, obscure references and potential mash-ups. The cameo in Thor: The Dark World is a great reminder of that, and based on how much people like it, the example should serve as a very good one for Disney as it attempts to make a Star Wars adaptation that both thrills casual fans and lets hardcore obsessives know the film was made by people who understand and care as much as they do.

The best way to handle a series of films is to plan ahead of time and to have creative consults on staff to map out overall story arcs before the individual writers get to work. The more that’s outlined ahead of time, the more can be seamlessly incorporated to create one running narrative. With a wealth of source material, the decision makers have plenty of different routes they can go in, and there’s no reason why they can’t use Marvel’s example and stockpile each film with reminders and hints at the larger Star Wars universe they’re adding to.